Brussels, 27/11.2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament has given its assent, in committee, to the ratification of the multiparty free-trade agreement between the EU and two economies in the Andean bloc.
On Tuesday 27 November the EP international trade committee passed by 20 votes to four, with one abstention, the recommendation by Mario David (EPP, Portugal) calling for ratification in the December plenary session of the free-trade agreement between the EU and Colombia and Peru. The agreement was initialled in March 2011 and signed in June of this year. It will be applied provisionally following a formal decision within Council but full conclusion will depend on its being ratified by all EU member states.
The agreement makes provision for the progressive liberalisation of trade in goods and services and public procurement, and measures to encourage investment. It leaves the door open to the other countries of the Andean Community - Bolivia and Ecuador - which withdrew from talks in 2008.
For Colombia and Peru, the major beneficiaries of the removal of customs tariffs will be fruit growers (in particular bananas and grapes) and shrimp fishermen. For the EU, the largest gains are expected in machinery, cars and chemical products.
To counter the threat of European banana growers in the EU's outermost regions, such as the Canaries, Guadeloupe and Martinique, being forced out of the market to the benefit of producers in Colombia and Peru, alongside the agreement is a stabilisation mechanism for bananas, recently approved by the EP international trade committee but still awaiting full Parliament assent.
The agreement also contains a chapter on sustainable development and trade, which commits the parties to promoting human rights and environmental standards. The Colombian and Peruvian governments have accepted specific undertakings on implementing a human rights clause requiring them to submit legally binding roadmaps to the European Parliament. (EH/transl.fl)
Human rights, Scholz fights for rejection of agreement. Despite having his amendment calling for Parliament not to approve the agreement with Peru and Colombia thrown out, Helmut Scholz (GUE/NGL, Germany) repeated his concerns on Tuesday over the negative impact the free-trade agreement could have on development and human rights in a region which is seeing unprecedented levels of murders of trade unionists in Colombia, governments unable to protect the rights of native peoples and violations of labour rights in the mining sector. “The INTA committee's recommendation that the European Parliament give its consent is a wrong decision that has to be corrected in plenary or by the national parliaments of the EU. The impact assessment study ordered by the Commission itself confirms clearly that such an agreement would increase pressure on land and other natural resources, at the expense of the poor, destroy more jobs in Spain and in the outmost regions of Europe, and destroy some national economic sectors in Colombia and Peru, such as the dairy and financial services industries, while facilitating money laundering”, he told press after the vote. Any reduction of tariffs on banana imports to the EU would benefit multinationals like Chiquita, “a company known for its support to paramilitary groups”, he stated. Speaking alongside representatives of the European Trade Union Confederation and the NGO International Office for Human Rights Action on Colombia (OIDHACO), Scholz was supported by his EP colleagues Richard Howitt (S&D, UK) and Ska Keller (Greens/EFA, Germany). (EH/transl.fl)